On Thursday evening, March 11, about 30 community residents gathered at the Lancaster Public Library to discuss library service in Lancaster County and to share their ideas for its improvement. The gathering was one of a series of town hall meetings called by the County-appointed libraries task force, in an effort to collect the community’s insights during their final months of research. And one insight came through loud and clear: The need to solicit grassroots, popular support for county libraries.

The task force was appointed last fall by the Lancaster County board of commissioners to take an objective look at the funding and administration of area libraries. The group’s seven members represent a broad spectrum of library leadership, including larger libraries, smaller borough and township libraries, and the Library System. Only two members—Diane Rice of the System and John McGrann of LPL board—were present at Thursday’s meeting.

One man in attendance suggested that library officials work to alter the public’s perception of these institutions. With tens of thousands of cardholders countywide, the man argued, libraries are an integral part of public education efforts. But most people do not see this critical role, he said.

The man further noted that, on a given weekday, there are likely more people bustling through the Lancaster Public Library than there are in the Lancaster County Convention Center. In a city billing itself as a sophisticated destination for the arts and education, he said, such meager financial support for our library is senseless.

A home-schooling mother noted that, for families such as hers, the public library is the only library their students ever know. The home-schooling community, she said, is one that would not only benefit from more targeted programs but could also become a great asset to the county’s libraries by way of support and advocacy.

Library System administrator Susan Hauer added that Lancaster County contains more home-schooling families than any other county in Pennsylvania.

Warren Anderson, former owner of Chestnut Street Books, recommended that the county’s libraries make a strong case for how library funding can concretely benefit the community. It may be provocative to note that Lancaster’s libraries receive far less than in other counties, he asserted, but no politician would increase spending in any area without having the public convinced of its worth.

A report distributed at the meeting did note that, while Lancaster libraries recently received a $4.89 per capita County appropriation, Adams, Cumberland, and Chester Counties received more than double that amount. Dauphin’s allocation was over three times as much, at $16.22.

The discussion of public engagement ultimately pointed to the primary objective of driving our state and local elected officials to direct a more generous allocation to libraries in Lancaster County. As one man put it, the only way to get the attention of such leaders is to generate a “groundswell” of public support.

Other ideas proposed by members of the audience included:

• Advocating for a per capita library tax, rather than the earlier proposal based on millage
• Soliciting small donations from county cardholders
• Pushing for contributions from area schools, since libraries fall under the state’s department of education
• Having the libraries’ financial woes presented as clearly as local schools have in recent news reports
• Imposing a small fee on computer and premium database usage (McGrann noted that this would likely clash with the driving philosophy of public libraries to provide free access to information)

The task force members in attendance took note of all of the public’s suggestions, promising to take them into account as the task force moves toward presenting their final recommendations to the Lancaster County commissioners in June.

In an article “Fry to Drexel”, a sub heading reads “Franklin & Marshall College’s president of 8 years says he leaves the school ‘well positioned for the future.’”

WATCHDOG: As we recently described, “Fry did the best possible things in the worse possible ways.” His tenure was a wave of terror for the institution.

Representative was his standing on the lawn of his residence watching his bully security force throw non-resistant Ron Harper to the ground across the street. Harper (and companion Chris Hart-Nibbrig) had done nothing to justify detainment or the brutal action. They were never charged. We hope Harper sues Fry and F&M.

When NewsLanc publisher asked Fry to justify his action, Fry said “Ron Harper owns a gun.” Owns a gun? There are probably three times as many guns in the county as people. Harper’s weapons are his tongue, his pen and, of course, his video camera. Otherwise, Harper is a pussy cat!

The whole matter had to do with reporter Harper going to Fry’s home in the evening seeking an interview, a time-honored journalistic practice. It is hard to describe Fry’s subsequent actions other than ‘paranoid’ when days later Harper happened to be in the right-of-way in front of Fry’s residence to locate a circulation box.

(Under Fry, scores of people were sent letters threatening their arrest if they set foot on F&M’s campus, a bogus and deceitful practice.)

Despite having an honorary Franklin & Marshall Alumni Building membership, the Watchdog has not set foot on F&M’s campus without an invitation since the incident. He is aware that friends on the campus are afraid to even be in contact with him less they engender Fry’s wrath. Faculty members and others employees keep their thoughts to themselves.

How Fry treated CAARRT neighbors, who had the temerity of asking if there could be an alternate and better location for relocating the rail yard, was brutal and heartless. Whoever is his successor needs to clean house or scrub the brains of staff and the public relations department so that they prize accuracy and decency over spin.

Worse yet, Fry infected the leadership of Lancaster General Health just as Dale High did with the leadership at the Lancaster Newspapers.

Yes, John Fry has done some good things as president of F&M. But, our sentiment was summarized by the first contributor comment we received…“good riddance.”

We wish Fry well in his new position. He will likely do a good job at Drexel for a few years. Moreover, he will be constrained by the level of resistance he will encounter to any bully tactics.

John Fry will be swimming in the ocean, not a small pond. Unlike in Lancaster, if he doesn’t take care, he may end up lunch for a bigger fish.

It was a well argued case on both sides, but defending regional champions Cumberland Valley High School from Mechanicsburg prevailed over McCaskey in a close and well fought contest.

McCaskey was given the role of the prosecution in the finals, a task that many consider harder than the defense in the fictional murder case, given the lack of corpse and presence of an alternative suspect. The team had worked arduously over the past two weeks and had significantly improved the prosecution’s case, but this time they were up against their most formidable opponent. Cumberland Valley showed no visible lapses.

One can only speculate what the outcome would have been had the luck of the draw gone the other way.

There were tears, hugs and general disappointment upon hearing the jury’s decision. But for many members of the McCaskey team, there is next year. They had won eight out of nine contests.

As for the seniors, it’s time to catch up with their assignments and for some to join spring athletic teams. Their only remaining high school anxiety is whether they will be receiving approvals in April from the colleges of their first choice.

The teenagers saw themselves this day as winners or losers. The audience recognized them all as the leaders of the future.

Background: The executive director of the Drug & Alcohol Commission, Rick Kirchner, has estimated the heroin addict population in Lancaster County to be between 5,000 and 10,000. Lancaster General Hospital reported earnings of over $113 million in 2008, one of the highest for any hospital in the state. LGH’s stated mission is “to advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve…”

The sharing of used needles is the largest cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS spread through the heroin addict population and from them to the general population. Having helped bring about the deregulation of the sale of syringes and thus removing any stigma from syringe distribution, the funder for the decade old Lancaster syringe exchange, NewsLanc’s publisher Robert Field, is redirecting his support to other charitable efforts.

The following is an e-mail exchange between Field and John P. Lines, Director, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, of Lancaster General Health:

QUESTION: I have heard a rumor that LGH was offering to provide some funding [for the proposed Urban League syringe exchange] subject to conditions. Is this correct and what can you tell me about LGH’s offer and conditions?

REPLY: LG Health is not providing funding, nor offering to provide funding, for the Urban League’s syringe exchange program. We provided Mr. Dixon an explanation for our decision.

QUESTION: Has LGH offered to fund Bethel AME’s current syringe exchange? If so, how much a month?

REPLY: LG Health has not offered to fund Bethel AME’s syringe exchange program.

QUESTION:  Also, LGH had initiated a program for the treatment of heroin addicts. Is it ongoing? How many hours a week is the clinic open? Is there more than one doctor at a time? How many patients are they treating each week? How many new, how many repeat?

REPLY: Lancaster General Health’s Suboxone Clinic opened July 8, 2009. Patients are seen by one physician every Wednesday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Three physicians participate in the program. We schedule up to 12 patients per week. In 2009, we held 17 clinics and conducted 83 visits with a no-show rate of 8%. The same volume continues today.

All referrals go through RASE and patients are required to either attend Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meetings or counseling. About half of the patients are new to the program.

Left to right: Arnela Ombassic, Cynthia Thomas, Yentli Soto-Albretch, Benjamin Field, Nguyen Nguyen, Coach Kevin Webster, Juan Hernandez, Katy Plantz

With an early evening win over York Catholic at the Dauphin County Court House, the McCaskey mock trial team braced for the regional finals to take place on Wednesday.

McCaskey had the benefit of representing the defense, a role that the team has found more comfortable. However tomorrow, they will have to again be the prosecution. Although they won the county finals as the prosecution, the margin was razor thin. Team members have spent the intervening two weeks rewriting and practicing the prosecution’s case.

Some members were on the team that made it to the regional contests two years ago, but this will be the first time for Coach Kevin Webster and all of the students to compete in the regional finals.

At the Tuesday, March 9, Lancaster City Council meeting, Mayor Rick Gray announced the City’s final purchase of a building at 38 East Marion Street for $259,000. The property, on the same block as City Hall, could one day house an annex space to consolidate city government offices, Gray said.

Previous owners Mike Geesey and Tom Ponessa purchased the building last year for $260,000 to expand their popular downtown bar, Marion Court. Not long later, they were notified that the City was seeking to obtain the property. According to an Intell report last year, the owners specifically requested the City’s use of eminent domain to offset penalties for early repayment of a loan on the building.

“It would not be fair to keep the current property owners on hold any longer,” Gray said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Gray also emphasized that the City has no plans to begin developing the annex anytime soon: “While we are not in a position to move forward with construction of an annex to City Hall in the near future,” Gray said, “It is in the long term best interests of the City to control this property in order to enable future expansion.”

The $259,000, Gray said, is drawn from the City’s capital improvement program, funded by a 2007 bond issue. “Funds from bond issues can only be spent on capital projects which represent long-term investments by the City,” Gray said, with an eye on the City’s strained operating budget, “Bond funds cannot be spent on annual operating, salary, or benefit expenses.”

Gray presented a proposal last year to eventually expand City Hall into the annex property in a construction project that would cost an estimated $8 million.

Second in a series by Cliff Lewis

In the next decade, James Street Improvement District president Lisa Riggs hopes to see more of the same within the organization’s territory. “When we think about where the community could be five or ten years from now, you take an already pretty incredible residential base, and you grow it,” Riggs said. Specifically, she sees this process being driven by a growing ‘connectivity’ between various city neighborhoods and services.

With the $12 million renovation of Lancaster Amtrak station and new city blocks to be patched into former industrial sites, Riggs expects new and improved physical connections to bring considerable growth to the city’s north and northeast. “Even for those of us who have general knowledge of the projects, it’s hard for us to get our arms around how that’s going to change the community landscape,” Riggs said, “But it no doubt will.”

It should come as no surprise that the JSID’s next big initiative is all about connecting district neighborhoods with increased quality-of-life amenities.

“How do you get people from these neighborhoods out here?,” Riggs hypothetically asked while pointing to Long’s Park on a large map of the JSID territory. The park, though owned by Lancaster City, is virtually inaccessible to city pedestrians. “It’s not that long of a distance,” Riggs noted, “It should be accessible somehow.”

The solution proposed by the JSID is the development of a designated pedestrian trail that would link city neighborhoods to the park. As for where this trail will begin and what course it will take along the way, Riggs remains uncertain. It could simply track alongside Harrisburg Pike, Riggs said, or it could extend from the city’s west end into Buchanan Park and then follow the Farmingdale Trails to Farmingdale Road and, finally, end at the park.

“We’re not trying to be coy,” Riggs asserted, “We really don’t know….I think that’s where we need someone to look at this and say, ‘If you want to go here, here are the requirements to make Harrisburg Pike safe and accessible…Here’s what that looks like in terms of cost and practicality.’ Our other option is, ‘You’re going to need a right-of-way and an easement from these 52 property owners, etc.’”

The question of where the trail should begin is no less difficult, Riggs noted: “Whatever we come up with in terms of connectivity has to be something that actually makes sense for this group of people. We can’t necessarily solve it for every father and son or mother and daughter, but it needs to be accessible to them.”

Riggs said that she is often asked if the JSID—or a new group of its kind—may ever begin working in other, perhaps less ‘happening,’ sections of Lancaster City. For two reasons, Riggs said, it is unlikely that a group like the JSID will take hold in other parts of the city: Firstly, as the JSID thrives on contributions from large institutions—like F&M and LGH—within its territory, many other parts of Lancaster are not so fortunate; Secondly, the JSID model may not be ideal for neighborhoods with their own unique challenges and opportunities.

“I think there’s a real need for some further community discussion about our priorities in various neighborhoods and what sort of organizational structure would be ideal. And then that needs to be aligned with what resources are available and how to best deploy them,” Riggs said, “Those are tough discussions, but we’re certainly mindful of that.”

Food stores aren’t allowed to use milk as a loss-leader. The only one allowed to sell milk to consumers below state minimum prices is a dairy farmer who sells milk on his own farm.

Ohio, like Pennsylvania, has state stores for the sale of liquor, but has several types of licenses for establishments. Some places offering beverage alcohol by the drink can handle only 3.2% beer, others are allowed to sell regular 6.0% beer, malt liquor, and wine as well, and full service establishments are allowed to sell all legal alcoholic beverages by the drink. Some licenses allow carryout sales and others do not. However, minimum prices are enforced on prepackaged beverage alcohol, and if a place has a special on draft beer, that price cannot be advertised off the premises.

It might be reasonable to prohibit sale of gasoline by beverage alcohol retailers, but is there a reason why the sale of bread, milk, and hot dogs should be prohibited? After all, if a business sells both, it’s pretty hard to tell whether it’s an alcohol distributor selling food or a food store selling alcohol.

If selling people beer in supermarkets hurts taverns, that means that people are driving home before drinking, instead of drinking before driving home. That looks like less problem drinking to me.

Does the use of beer distributors make craft beers more available? It’s pretty easy to test that theory. Walk into 5 beer distributors’ stores, and see how many craft beers are available at each. There are a few distributors that carry a wide variety of brands; most can’t be bothered.

There aren’t many butcher shops in Lancaster. It’s not because people have given up eating beef, and it’s not because they’ve bred cattle that have only the most popular cuts of beef. If you want beef shanks, or tripe, all you have to do is ask at most supermarkets, because they are striving to win shoppers by offering products their competitors aren’t offering. Walk through the produce department and count the types of fruits and vegetables offered today that weren’t available in supermarkets 30 years ago.

Undoubtedly, beer distributors don’t want new competitors – but there’s no sound reason why their monopoly interests should be maintained. Allowing people to pick up a six pack or a case when they buy their other groceries cuts down on traffic on the roads, cuts down on gasoline expenses by consumers, and leaves more money in consumers’ pockets.

From USA TODAY:

“A Gallup Poll last October found 44% favor making marijuana legal, an eight-point jump since the question was asked in 2005. An ABC News-Washington Post poll in January found 81% favor making marijuana legal for medical use…

“At least 14 states this year — some deeply conservative and Republican-leaning, such as Kansas — will consider legalizing pot for medical purposes or lessening the penalties for possessing small amounts for personal use. Fourteen other states and the District of Columbia already have liberalized their marijuana laws…

“Now California’s Legislature is considering a bill that would make it the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use as well. It is unlikely to pass this year, but Gray and other advocates hope to have a proposition on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana use for anyone 21 or older. California would levy taxes that the state tax board says could raise $1.3 billion or more a year for the deficit-plagued state, while saving tens of millions in prison and law-enforcement costs. Sponsors of the ballot issue have turned in 690,161 signatures on petitions for verification, far more than the 433,971 valid signatures required to get on the ballot.”

Click here to read the full article.

From NEWSMAX.COM:

If Americans could have a former living U.S. president run the country and deal with the problems facing the nation today, they would pick Bill Clinton by a wide margin, a Newsmax/Zogby poll reveals.

Former President Jimmy Carter came in last, garnering just 5 percent of support for him taking charge.

The exclusive Newsmax/Zogby poll also found that if an election were held today between Barack Obama and George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton, Obama would beat both handily.

The Newsmax/Zogby poll asked respondents: “Of the current living former presidents, which do you think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today?”

Bill Clinton got 41 percent of the vote, trouncing the others in the field of four. George W. Bush received just 15 percent, George H.W. Bush got 7 percent, and Jimmy Carter, just 5 percent. (Only 7 percent of Democrats surveyed opted for Carter.) But 26 percent chose “none,” and 5 percent were “not sure” (figures are rounded)…

Click here to read the full article.